Disclaimer: Things are really messed up right now, what with this worldwide pandemic bringing nearly everything to a halt. That being said, I hope that everyone is staying as safe and as healthy as possible. Keep strong and keep fighting, we'll get through this.
As usual, I don't own the rights to Transformers.
Chapter IX
Brainstorm went hard into the wall with pieces falling from it while he crumbled to a heap. As he tried to get back up, the gargantuan frame of the robot called Overlord loomed over him. Overlord took Brainstorm by the neck and tossed him across the way. Brainstorm hit the opposite wall harder than he did the first one, but he managed to deploy his gun and fired on Overlord. The shot caught Overlord in the chest. It was a direct hit and Brainstorm fired more shots, but Overlord shrugged the shots off as if they were of little concern. Overlord didn't even show a hint of emotion as he looked over Brainstorm again.
Overlord palmed Brainstorm's face and lifted him up before proceeding to pummel him relentlessly. While this was going on, Sari was starting to recover. She saw Brainstorm getting beaten by this monstrous machine and started to get to her feet. She had no idea what to do, but standing by and watching her friend get destroyed wasn't a option. She was finally upright and started moving forward toward Overlord, who had Brainstorm pinned to the wall. Then she ran full speed, only for Overlord to kick her back. Sari hit the floor with a small thud and recovered in time to see Overlord continue to strangle Brainstorm.
"Let him go!" Sari demanded, but Overlord wasn't listening.
"Sari," Brainstorm laboriously said. "Get out of here!"
"No, I'm not leaving." Sari replied and rushed Overlord again only to be knocked back again.
"Foolish child." Overlord mused.
Sari was down on her hands and knees while looking up, and her eyes glowed bright red. "Let… him… go…" she threw her arms up and screamed, "NOW!"
Then she brought her clasped fists down with every bit of force she could muster. What happened next, no one expected. A surge of power burst forth, spreading across the floor at near break neck speed. The surge hit Overlord's feet and climbed across his body. He started convulsing from the surge and transformed to his two vehicles. The tank seemed to stall in place while the jet slammed into the wall. Brainstorm felt the same effect from the sudden surge and dropped to the floor in a heap.
Sari's eyes lost their red glow and the surge dissipated. She gathered herself enough to look around her surroundings and see the end result of her outburst. The tank and jet vehicles that made up the hulking Overlord were apparently disabled. So was Brainstorm, who laid in a heap across from Sari. It instantly dawned on her she had done and she shot toward the fallen Autobot. She was within reach when she was hit by a sudden jolt of in her back. She dropped just inches from Brainstorm, who tried to reach his hand out to her. Sari did the same, and neither knew what had happened.
"Well, well. This is certainly an interesting turn of events." a raspy voice spoke out.
Sari looked toward the source of the voice and saw a large object floating toward her from the base of Fortress Maximus. Brainstorm managed to get a better look at the object. He could tell that it was some kind of hovering chair. But it was the occupant that took him by surprise. He was clearly a cybernetic being, with only half his face appearing Human. After taking a short and uninterested glance at Brainstorm, the new arrival focused his gaze on Sari.
"Welcome home, my dear Pretender." he said to her.
Sari, unable to move, weakly asked, "Who are you?"
The figure loomed closer and replied with a sick smirk, "My enemies, the Transformers, know me as Dr. Arkeville. But you, my dear… you've just met your maker."
Afterburner and Nosecone traveled along with the cavernous depths, following along the supposed path that Brainstorm and Sari has taken. They stopped periodically to gather themselves, making sure of no immediate issues. Afterburner has the lead with Nosecone following close behind. Nosecone watched their rear but both were ready to fight if the need arose. The priority was ultimately to find their friends, and Afterburner wasn't about to give up on them.
"Afterburner to Brainstorm. Come on, buddy. Give me something."
"Still no response from him, Afterburner?" Nosecone asked, even though he knew the answer anyway.
"Not a peep, but I'm not giving up. He and Sari brought us back, so we owe them big time." Afterburner said.
"I wholly agree with you," Nosecone replied just as a faint growl sounded. "Okay, you heard that, right?"
Afterburner wasn't going to mince words as he replied, "Yeah, I did. Kinda wish I didn't."
Afterburner saw a shadow moving out of the corner of his optics and spun to see… some thing. Whatever it was, it lurched toward the Technobot at a slow pace, as if stalking him. It appeared like a bizarre bug-thing creature with pincers across a sickening mouth and green, buggy eyes. Another beastly creature appeared to Afterburner's left side. It was clearly bipedal and had a pair of wings on its back. Nosecone spotted the second creature just before a third one appeared, this one also having wings… and two elongated heads.
The two Technobots went back to back and armed up as the three beasts circled around them. The two-headed monster hissed at them while dragon-like monster seemed to chuckle. The bug-thing cocked its head with curiosity before it faked out an attack. Afterburner very nearly reacted against the bug until Nosecone held him back for some reason. Nosecone pointed out that reason and it surprised Afterburner to see the Autobot insignia on the one two-headed monster. Then the two-header shockingly transformed into a bipedal robot much like the Technobots. The bug-thing transformed soon after and then dragon-like monster transformed afterward, laughing as it did. They surrounded Afterburner and Nosecone, yet they didn't pounce. That didn't stop Afterburner from pointing his gun at the apparent leader of the trio.
"One wrong move and I'll frag that sorry, ugly face." Afterburner said.
The two-header cocked his head and seemed to smirk at the Technobot. Then it shockingly spoke out, "You don't wanna try it."
Nosecone looked at the two-header in disbelief and said, "You can talk?"
"Does that really freak you out?" the dragon-thing asked.
"'Course we can talk," the bug-thing said. "What's it to you?"
Nosecone and Afterburner exchanged wary glances and both slowly lowered their guns. Nosecone addressed the leader of the trio and said, "You've got the Autobot insiginia like us."
"Yeah, so what? We don't hang out with those losers up on the surface. Down here, we Monsterbots do our own thing." The two-header said.
"Damn right, and no one can tell us any different." said the bug-thing.
"But enough 'bout that. I'm Grotusque."
"Yeah, we can see that." Afterburner said.
The Monsterbot calling himself Grotusque burst out laughing, "No, that's my name. But I can see what you meant."
Afterburner tried to avert his gaze from Grotusque to the bug-thing and asked, "What do we call you, sunshine?"
"Repugnus. Call me 'sunshine' again and I'll tear you circuits out."
The two-header then said, "As for me, I'm Doublecross. Now, who're you two and what the scrud are you doing down here?"
After a brief and cautious pause, Afterburner said, "We're called Technobots; that's Nosecone and I'm Afterburner."
"We're searching for a couple of friends who got separated from our group following an attack on the surface." Nosecone added.
"You mean that one Autobot and his Human companion? Yeah, we saw them down here, probably already taken by that other one." Repugnus said.
"Other one?" Nosecone said.
"Yeah, a weird lookin' Human male who looks more like a machine that rides on a chair." Grotusque said.
Again, Afterburner and Nosecone exchanged glances and Afterburner said, "Another Human, up here?"
Giving it some additional thought, Nosecone looked to Doublecross and asked, "Do you know where we can find them?"
"You mean 'can we lead you to where they're being kept?' Why should help you?" Doublecross wondered.
"Because we asked nicely." Afterburner sarcastically replied, earning an audible chuckle from Grotusque.
"More important than that, our companions helped rebuild us after we previously died in battle. Their names are Brainstorm and Sari, and we're going to find them with or without you." Nosecone stated with pure determination in his voice.
Doublecross clearly wasn't keen on Nosecone's tone of voice and stepped up the Technobot with Grotusque and Repugnus flanking him. Afterburner then stepped up to Doublecross in response. He wasn't about to let Nosecone take these so called Monsterbots on his own. Grotusque and Repugnus inched around to either side of the Technobots as to surround them. Afterburner and Nosecone went back to back and prepared for a fight. But to their surprise, Doublecross waved both of his cohorts off. He did so without taking his optics off Afterburner. Then he produced a sly grin and backed away by one step.
"I like these bots. They got Spark." he said.
Cautious of the other Monsterbots, Nosecone asked, "So does that mean you're going to help us?"
"We know where your friends are being kept and we can get you there." Doublecross claimed.
"Just like that? No tricks?" Afterburner asked.
Doublecross turned his back to Afterburner but still looked back at him over his shoulder and said, "What've you got to lose?"
"A lot if we're being honest." Nosecone answered as Doublecross returned to his two-headed monster form.
Repugnus and Grotusque transformed to their monster forms and followed Doublecross down the path. After hesitating, Nosecone and Afterburner followed them. They didn't trust these new bots despite their possessing the Autobot insignia, but their options were limited. But that was hardly the issue at the moment. Brainstorm and Sari were still missing and the Monsterbots claimed they could lead Nosecone and Afterburner to them. There was also the added wrinkle of another Human on Cybertron, meaning Nosecone and Afterburner had to act as quickly as possible. As they went along, Nosecone noticed that Afterburner had his gun ready. He was willing to act if the Monsterbots, and Doublecross specifically, turned on them. Nosecone knew full well that it was an absolute certainty. It was just a question of when.
It was the most awkward moment in Scattershot's existence once he, Lightspeed, Strafe and Rattletrap made it to Iacon. The leader of the Technobots was sitting in a seat in a wide open space replete with more technology than what could be found in a M.E.C.H. base, staring into the cold, blue optics of a small, red Autobot. That Autobot was Cliffjumper, and he wasn't taking even the slightest of chances with the new arrivals. Cliffjumper wasn't the only Autobot staring at the Technobots. Outback, formally known as Brawn, had his rifle ready but not trained on them. He wasn't about to take chances as Cliffjumper leered closer to Scattershot. Scattershot did all he could to not punch Cliffjumper in the face.
"Okay, let's recap so we're all on board here; you guys were built on Earth by some crazy Human to kill our friends. Then you joined our friends to fight off the Decepticons only to get blown and then put back together by Brainstorm, Highbrow and some Human girl who's actually Cybertronian. And now, you're all here while she and Brainstorm are somewhere beneath the planet's surface. Am I right?" Cliffjumper said.
Scattershot simply replied, "Yep!"
Outback said, "As far as explanations go, that's not the worst I've heard."
"Not entirely out of the question either, Outback," a new voice replied, and the source of the voice was revealed to be Perceptor. "Humans have made great strides in the advancement of technology and innovation. It's not entirely out of the question that they would eventually design robots of their own."
"Typical Perceptor, always trying to rationalize things. Sometimes, I wish you'd stayed retired on Zamojin." Outback said with a smirk.
"There are some things that simply never change, Outback." Perceptor replied.
"Well, I personally don't buy it, and I sure as the Pit don't buy into the idea of a Cybertronian Human girl. Seems way to farfetched to me." Cliffjumper said.
"It's the truth." Lightspeed said.
"Yeah, we came up here to help Sari find whoever made her. When we got separated, two more members of our team went after them." Strafe added.
"And you team is called the Technobots, yes?" Perceptor said.
"Yeah." Scattershot replied.
"Hey Professor Screw Loose, you're more than welcome to take these goofs apart if you like. I ain't stoppin' ya." Rattletrap joked.
"Or we can have Perceptor here take you apart, Rattletrap." Scattershot snapped.
"Ya wanna say that again? I couldn't hear ya from all the way over there." Rattletrap snapped back.
Scattershot got up and started to move on Rattletrap but Perceptor was able to get between them. "Alright, that's enough. Clearly, these Technobots are not our enemy. Otherwise, they would've brought the walls down around us."
"So can you help us find our friends?" Scattershot asked.
Outback stepped up to Scattershot, his rifle now holstered, and said, "Our priority is maintaining security around Iacon. With Blaster, Blur and Override back on Velocitron, we don't have the resources to mount a search. We can't count on Sky Lynx since he went missing a while back. So right now, all we can do is wait."
"Did I ever tell you how much I hate waiting?" Scattershot said.
"Better get used to it." Outback replied.
Perceptor chimed, "There is the one possibility of the..."
"Do'h no. Not them, Perceptor." Cliffjumper snapped.
"Who?" Lightspeed asked.
Perceptor looked reluctantly at Cliffjumper and Outback before he replied, "Well, they're called the Monsterbots; Doublecross, Repugnus and Grotusque. Wheeljack built them some time ago but they were deemed too dangerous. We had to cast them out. They're out there somewhere, but I wouldn't exactly call them reliable."
"I'd call them borderline insane, insubordinate." Cliffjumper said.
Scattershot exchanged worried glances with his fellow Technobots before asking Perceptor, "So, how worried should we be about these Monsterbots, on a scale of one to ten?"
Perceptor reluctantly replied, "Honestly, you really don't want to know."
Scattershot looked troublingly at his freinds and said, "You're right. We don't want to know."
"Yep, they're all gonna die," Rattletrap audibly quipped, which earned him menacing glares from the Technobots. "I know, I know, 'Shut up, Rattletrap.'"
Joshua Joyce sat at the console watching the newly altered Predacons work on the titan ship's repairs. He was, at the time, initially amazed when Predaking turned out to be five smaller robots merged into one giant... not that it really mattered to him. As he looked on at the screen, his mind wandered. He was deep in thought, contemplating the forces that pushed him this far into his quest for vengeance. His eyes shut for a mere moment and then opened again, this time staring at a hologram of two people; a woman and a young boy. They smiled as if they had not a care in the universe, and the image alone was about to make Joshua shed a tear. Then he heard the familiar clanking of metallic footsteps approaching. He didn't need to turn around to know that Unicron had just entered the room.
"The repairs to the titan ship are nearly completion." Unicron said.
Without addressing Unicron's presence, Joshua simply replied, "Very well."
Unicron then noticed the hologram and said, "The woman and child... you know them."
Joshua turned his chair but didn't take his eyes off the hologram. "My wife... my son. They were my universe."
"You lost them." Unicron said.
Finally, Joshua glared at Unicron and coldly replied, "I lost everyone and everything that I held most dear."
Unicron slowly approached Joshua and said, "Tell me."
Joshua took a moment of pause to gather himself. "You know, this titan ship... it was never meant to be a weapon to destroy but as a tool to built. It has a name; I call it Skorponok. It was built by my people on a planet called Nebulos and I was selected as the world's foremost engineer to take out into the depths of space for its maiden voyage."
"I know nothing of this Nebulos, but I can safely surmise that Joshua Joyce would not exist." Unicron said.
"Joshua Joyce was a label used to conceal my true identity while I searched Earth to find my once lost ship," he snapped, jumping from his chair in a rage, yet Unicron didn't flinch. "We'd been separated by an asteroid field in the Sol System. So no, there is no such individual by that name. I am Nebulon by birth. My name... is Zarak."
Blackarachnia crept just a little closer to the titan ship in her spider form without daring to give herself away. The ship itself seemed inert and unresponsive to her otherwise minimal presence. She moved closer to the ship but stayed out of sight. Still, the ship didn't react to her. Blackarachnia wasn't about to take a chance and stayed put until she was absolutely sure of the right time to make to move. That right time, however, wasn't going to come so swiftly. She could hear the faint rustling of the bushes behind her, but she didn't immediately move from he position. Mixed in with the sound of the bushes was the sound of heavy footsteps, and it was until make Blackarachnia want to react. She didn't move yet, not until the footsteps grew heavier and closer.
She had to move, so she scampered up to the branches of a tree large enough to conceal her. She waited for her target, listening for the heavy footsteps. The footsteps drew closer to her position while she waited to pounce. Then they stopped. Blackarachnia saw her chance to strike and dropped from the branch, only to be knocked out of the air by a massive backhand strike. She went flying into the opposite direction and slammed into another tree. She quickly transformed to robot form and drew her weapon, only to be grasped around the neck and pinned to the tree. Then a feeling of dread washed over her as she was suddenly face to face... with Megatron.
Author's Note: So that's put another chapter in the books and not a moment too soon all things considered. I leave everything up to those who review and, in all seriousness, I hope that everybody remains as safe and as healthy as humanly possible. Peace out.
